Big Brother star denies sex charges

A woman has told a court her life was "ruined" after former Big Brother star Jason Cowan allegedly forced himself on her as she slept after a festive work night out.

Cowan, a contestant on the show in 2004, is accused of performing a sex act on the partygoer during an overnight stay at a lodge park in Lochgoilhead, Argyll, in December 2011. He denies the charge and has lodged a special defence of consent.

The alleged victim, 36, sobbed as she told a trial at the High Court in Glasgow: "This has ruined my life. If I had consented, I wouldn't be here."

The woman told the High Court in Glasgow that she went to sleep in a room at his lodge after she thought she had been locked out of her own accommodation.

She had left the cabin earlier when Cowan, 39, had "not taken kindly" to her asking if he was gay because of his "polished" appearance.

The woman said she woke to find Cowan, from Glasgow, on top of her. She said: "I was screaming at him to get off me. I don't know if he was speaking, I just remember he had a really nasty face."

The woman said she hadn't met Cowan before the night out, where he was a guest of a colleague, and hadn't watched him in Big Brother.

The witness said she drank around four gin and tonics and some champagne and Red Bull before dinner, when she had a further four or five gins. Afterwards, she said she went to a party at the lodge where Cowan was staying and, after briefly returning to her own accommodation, went back to the lodge where Cowan was now alone.

She said: "I asked him if he was gay because he was so polished. I don't think he took kindly to that. I thought I'd better go, and left." When she couldn't get into the lodge next door, which she mistook for her own, she went back to find Cowan in bed and asked if she could stay in the twin room.

Cowan denies performing a sex act on the woman while she was asleep and incapable of giving or withholding consent.